When you start planning your 3D photography business, one fundamental question you should ask yourself is where you want to operate and what customers you want to sell to. These seem like simple questions, but careful consideration is suggested when making this important decision. If you reach out to a broad audience, you may come off as tone deaf to your best customer’s needs. Narrow your scope too much and you may miss out on your ideal customer. The focus of this post is to provide information so you can make an informed decision when planning for your 3D scanning business.
Tourist Locations
Over the years we have seen a lot of success with partners who operate in tourist locations. Although it can take a bit of work to get into a good location (connections and funds), they can be very lucrative once established. As with all prime real estate, the right location in a tourist destination is paramount.
Customer profiles
People who visit tourist locations usually have some expendable income to spend on a unique gift to remind them of their visit. One way of making your location unique is to have props that represent the location available for your customers to use for the scanning session. You can also experiment with selling items and backdrops that can be displayed with the 3D portraits to reinforce the memory.
Print use cases
People are looking for something that they can display on a mantle at home or on their office desk that reminds them of a special moment in time. *Don’t forget that you can add your own branding and custom background on all Twindom preview models. These digital files can be stored like photos and can be a link back to your brand.
Studios
With the right marketing and location, a studio can be a lucrative venture that can generate repeat customers with the experience you provide. Many people who have studios also have a mobile system that they can use for events. Like tourist locations, you will want to put careful thought into the appearance of your studio and the experience you provide to your customers.
Customer profiles
People who go to studios are looking for a professional, unique experience to capture their special moment in time. Because your customers are looking for a custom experience, it makes it easier to justify a higher purchase price. You usually will not have a very high volume of customers in a given month, so it is recommended to make every interaction count.
Print use cases
Like tourist locations, customers will want to display prints at home or in the office. Since your customers will most likely be paying top dollar for their 3D printed figurines, it’s a good idea to present an end product unique to your brand. Studios are also a great place where your customers can go to memorialize stages of life (kids growing up, sports teams, etc…).
Events
With proper planning events can be a great source of revenue for your business. If you are going this route, it’s important to plan what events you will be going to many months in advance and start promoting early. Events can either be paid, private events (activations, corporate events) or public events where you will need to attract customers to purchase products from your booth. A combination of networking with key players and targeted marketing in advance of the show can greatly contribute to a successful event.
Customer profiles
The guests coming to public events are usually passionate about the things being presented, have an idea of what they want to get out of the event, and have a predetermined amount that they want to spend on things at the event. Paid events can be a little different because the guests are looking for an experience and are not necessarily thinking about cost (unless this was mentioned in advance).
Print use cases
Many people going to these events are dressed in some attire that reflects who they are. It’s easier to get them to be scanned since you are helping them capture the way they look at that moment in time. These 3D portraits could be displayed in a special display case or on someone’s office desk.
AR/VR scanning
Recently we have seen an increased trend of using AR/VR to stand out to end customers. With a high throughput 3D scanner at a large event, you have the opportunity to reach a large audience and put them into an experience quickly. Since the output is purely digital, you are able to quickly produce a high quality 3D asset that can be imported into custom software. You can click here to find out more about 3D scanning for AR/VR applications.
Other Use Cases
There are a variety of other use cases for 3D scanners and many that may have not been thought up yet. In the end you are using 3D photography to create a product for someone and that product could be many things.
In conclusion, it’s important to put careful thought into who your target customers will be and setting up in the right location, with the right way to reach your audience will be fundamental to your success.
We hope the information in this blog was useful and if you want to read more regarding planning, please have a look at our blog post regarding profitability with your full body 3D scanner.
Looking for more inspiration for your business planning? Follow us on Instagram!
Ready for a conversation to discuss your own 3D photography business?